


Finding a Craft

by octopus_fool



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Dreams, Gen, Khazâd November
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/octopus_fool/pseuds/octopus_fool
Summary: “Do you already know which craft you want to learn?” Thrain asked. “You know you don’t have to go the traditional route.”





	Finding a Craft

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 28 of [Khazâd November](https://a-grump-of-dwarves.tumblr.com/post/166304116735/khaz%C3%A2d-november-2017), the additional prompt was "craft".  
> 

“Do you already know which craft you want to learn?” Thrain asked. “You know you don’t have to go the traditional route.”

“I know,” Thorin replied. “I haven’t really decided yet.”

“I could imagine you would make a good gold smith,” Thror suggested.

Thorin suppressed a shudder. “I’m not sure I quite have the fine motor skills and the eyes needed for that. But I’ll think about it.”

“Maybe you could go into glass blowing,” Dís suggested. 

Thorin laughed. “It’s a lovely craft, but it is yours. I don’t think it would be a good idea for both of us to turn to the same craft.”

“How about baking? That should be fitting, judging by how you like to stuff cake after cake into yourself,” Frerin suggested jokingly. “Or pig farming, like the men of Lake-town do.”

Frerin got an elbow between the ribs as a reply. “Speak for yourself, dearest brother.”

“You are quite good with instruments,” Thrain said. “Maybe you should go into instrument making, you could specialize in harps.”

Thorin nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll definitely keep that possibility in mind.”

“Or become a tailor! You have good taste,” Dís added. 

“Hm, maybe.” While there surely were dwarves with worse taste than him, Thorin couldn’t really see himself becoming a tailor. “What do you think, Amad?”

Hulda shrugged. “I think you know best what you want. You’ll think of something.”

 

That evening, Thorin walked past his parents’ bedroom when he wanted to get a glass of water.

“He really needs to decide soon,” he could hear his father saying. “Especially if he turns out to be craft-wed like I think he will, he should actually have a craft to lean on.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll come up with something. Give him time. He has never disappointed us before, he knows what his duties are and cares more for them than you ever did.”

“Be that as it may, it makes me nervous that he hasn’t decided yet.”

Thorin snuck past as quietly as he could and got back into bed.

 

He was making the most beautiful golden baubles, created from gold and silver thread and holding little glass beads in colours too lovely to describe. There were small pieces of confectionary baked into the baubles. He had an entire cart of these masterpieces, which he pulled from door to door, straining against the drag of the cart on the muddy ground. Nobody opened the doors. Instead, men shouted at him from windows. 

“Please, buy my baubles, they are of the very best quality. I need to sell them, or my nephews will starve,” Thorin begged.

Someone threw a bucket of filth at him. It narrowly missed him, mingling with the mud at his feet. It wasn’t mud, Thorin realised. It had been pig muck all along.

With a start, Thorin woke. 

 

Thorin swung the hammer. It struck the chain on the anvil with a loud clang. It was not what his father had hoped for, rather too traditional. But it kept food on the table. There was always some smith work that needed to be done in the villages of men and dwarves had a good reputation, as blacksmiths at least. Not for the first time, Thorin wondered if that dream a long time ago had been foresight, a kind of warning. If it was, he was glad he had heeded it.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m currently taking Christmas/Yuletide/winter requests/prompts over on Dreamwidth! If you’re interested, read more here: <https://octopus-fool.dreamwidth.org/2017/12/03/>


End file.
